Ode to Naruto (Naruto Secrets)
by TheFemaleReviewer
Summary: Ever wondered HOW Naruto and Sasuke first met? This story has ALL the secret details. I write MULTIPLE "Naruto Secrets" stories which shed light on their relationship in ways the manga/anime never has before. Be the first to get let in on the secret! I assure you it's worth the length!


Sasuke's Part

I'm an Uchiha. That means a lot to me because we Uchihas have our own section of Konoha that we stay in. Konoha is my village. We Uchihas also mean a lot because, like my brother told me, we make up the Konoha Military Police Force. We keep order in the village. But there's one kid who definitely isn't an Uchiha who is always hanging around our district borders. When I go with my brother to watch him train in the forest, sometimes I see him around there. But, he's not supposed to be there! That place is inside the Uchiha borders and only we can train there. And other times, when I go to sit at the lake, I see him walking by. The lake isn't inside our borders but its only stone's throw away. It's weird. That boy is always walking around by himself and I just want to know why.

So, one day, I asked my brother, Itachi, about it.

"Nii-san, look, there's that weird boy again!" I said when I saw him.

We were coming back from the Hokage's Tower which is almost all the way on the other side of the village. He had to deliver something to the Hokage and as a special treat for me, he decided to bring me along. It was one of the few times I was able to travel far outside of the Uchiha District. My brother says when I become a full-fledged ninja, I can leave the Uchiha District whenever I want but right now, I'm only six, so I have to stay inside.

"What boy?" he asked.

I pointed to the far right. The boy was walking standing next to a small cart where people we're buying fruit. He wasn't buying anything. He was just standing around with his hands in his pockets and wore really messy, worn clothes. When no one was looking, he snuck up to the table, grabbed an apple, and then turned and ran. The man at the cart watched him run and opened his mouth to call after the boy but then just shook his head and slammed his fist down.

"Oh, him." Said Itachi disinterestedly. "He's…of no concern to you."

"But he stole!" I exclaimed. "That's against the law! If Dad was here, he'd arrest him!"

Itachi kept walking and I skipped along to keep up with him.

"Well, he's not here."

"Why can't you arrest him, Nii-san?" I asked.

"I'm not a police officer…and I don't want to be one." He said.

I grabbed his hand and tugged on it to slow him down. He stopped and looked at me.

"I'm gonna be a Police officer, one day. I'm gonna be really big and strong like Dad and I'm gonna stop all the bad guys like that blonde boy who stole the fruit! And then I'll be even stronger than you, Nii-san! You'll see!"

Nii-san stared at me…and then suddenly, he smiled. He made a quick movement with his hand and beckoned me forward, I grinned and rushed over, expecting a hug but instead, he flicked my forehead. I jumped back, surprised.

"Ow!" I said.

He smiled and continued to walk.

"Let's get going, Sasuke, it'll be dinner time soon."

I rubbed my sore forehead and ran after him.

A couple of weeks later, I went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house to help them clean. I did a very good job and they gave me permission to go outside of the District and buy a treat for myself. I was extremely excited because it was the very first time I'd ever been outside by myself.

"Good work, Sasuke-kun." They said. "Go buy yourself a treat at the plaza."

"Whoa! At the plaza? But that's outside!" I said.

"We know." Said my Uncle. "But it's alright if we give you permission."

I ran out of the district and was suddenly overwhelmed by the diversity in the plaza. The plaza wasn't very far from my District but it was the center of Konoha, a place where my clan's symbol wasn't brightly displayed everywhere and where everyone didn't have black hair and dark eyes. Instead of my clan's symbol, the leaf symbol was displayed and so was another symbol which looked a lot like a red swirl. I looked around for a cart with my favorite sweet on it and when I found it, I rushed forward with the money.

"Can I buy two, please?" I asked.

The man standing behind the cart nodded and smiled.

"Who's the second one for?" he asked.

"My brother, Itachi, he's been training all day."

"Itachi?" he said. "Oh, I see. You're an Uchiha child, aren't you?"

"Yes but I have permission to be outside." I told him quickly.

He nodded and handed me two strawberry pops.

"Okay, well make sure you get back home quickly." He said sternly.

I nodded and turned to go back but when I did something yellow caught my eye. I looked to the left and saw, at the edge of the crowd, the same boy who had broken the law that long time ago. This was the first time since then that I had been outside of the district, so the memory was still fresh in my mind. I frowned and walked through the crowd, over to him, wanting to scold him but the closer I tried to get to him the denser the crowd got.

"Get out of here!"

"Why don't you just go home!"

"You stupid boy!"

"You're ruining everybody's fun, stupid!"

Why was everyone yelling? Why was everyone so angry? I finally pushed my way up to the front, almost right in front of the boy. I was so close to him, I only had to take two more steps before I could reach out and grab him. He looked up, over my head at a woman who was yelling at him. I smirked. It served him right, he probably got caught stealing this time.

"Get out of here, you stupid fox!"

"You're a demon!"

"Yeah, that's right, you're just a demon!"

But something in my stomach just didn't feel right… The boy, he wasn't holding anything…so what did he steal this time? The boy balled his fists.

"Leave me alone!" he said. "I hate you all! One day…one day…you'll all regret it!"

I saw something bad in his eyes…something scary. It was just a flash but for that moment, it seemed so sinister. I wanted to run away. But his words made the crowd angry and they began throwing things at him, the woman behind me threw an apple and then someone else threw a tomato and they threw more things and more until he had to cover his face to avoid getting hurt. I was so confused… I didn't know what to do. I knew that he was bad for stealing but…he hadn't stolen this time, did he? What did he do wrong? I couldn't see it… All I could see were a lot of people yelling and throwing things at him, even if he did steal, my Dad wouldn't treat him this way…and I knew this for a fact. Suddenly, I was resolved. I ran toward him and held out my arms. The next thing someone threw, an open bottle, splashed at my shirt and stained my shorts.

"Leave him alone!" I said.

They all looked at me with irritated expressions, now _I _was ruining their fun.

"Move out of the way kid or else…" a teen boy threatened.

"I'll get my Dad down here!" I threatened. "I'll tell him you were hurting this boy for no reason! He's a Police Officer, he'll arrest you all!"

Everyone took a noticeable step back when they heard that.

"Wait, you're an Uchiha?" said the woman who had been standing over me.

I didn't even have to answer. Most of them could see the symbol in red and white on the back of my gray collared shirt. The crowd quickly dispersed and the person that threw the bottle, a teenage girl, apologized to me and nodded curtly to the boy behind me. The boy was slowly standing up. He stared at me as though he had never seen anything more peculiar in his life.

"Why did you help me?" he asked.

Instead of answering him I proposed a question that had been burning within me.

"Did you steal?"

He looked at the ground and shook his head.

"No."

"I saw you steal before, don't lie to me."

"I didn't steal anything this time! I always get caught anyway…"

He looked weird…really skinny and hungry. Like he didn't eat all the time. I looked at the strawberry lollipop in my hand, the one that was for Itachi.

"Here." I said. "Eat it."

He hesitated, staring at me wearily like I would suddenly sprout wings and fly away. He finally took it, unwrapped the paper, and stuck it into his mouth.

"Thank you." He said.

I blushed.

"It's just candy, no big deal…"

"No, I mean for everything."

I nodded.

"Sure." Then it occurred to me that I probably should've been back in the district a long time before then.

"Uh, I gotta get back home. I'll get in trouble if I stay out any longer."

Suddenly, his expression changed.

"Oh, I get it…" he said.

I raised my eyebrows.

"What?"

"You have a family, don't you? A Mom and Dad…someone that cares when you get home."

I took this as an obvious statement.

"Of course, I do."

His body clenched up. His scowl returned.

"Well, don't let me be a drag on your stupid family then!" he shouted. "Just go home, already!"

I stared at the boy with wide eyes wondering why he was suddenly so angry. But he didn't say anything more, he immediately turned around and ran the opposite direction but I couldn't help but notice that as he ran he clutched the candy I gave him very tightly to his chest like he was scared it would disappear.

Two days later, I was at home playing with my brand-new ninja play set. I got it for my seventh birthday. Now that I was seven, I would be able to enter the academy soon. I couldn't wait! My ninja play set had a magnetic board and five magnetic shuriken and I practiced throwing the magnetic shuriken at the targets on the board from different sides of my room. At one point, I jumped off of my bed, did a roll-over in the air and took a really good aim, I didn't get bulls eye but at least it hit the board.

"So, I see you've already learned to throw shuriken while in mid-air." Said a voice.

I turned to see my brother standing in my doorway.

"But your aim needs work."

I looked at the ground.

"Do you want to go practice by the lake?" he asked.

My head flipped up in excitement.

"Wow! Really?" I asked.

He nodded.

I did one of my high jumps and landed in front of him.

"Let's go!"

We arrived at the lake about twenty minutes later. My brother set up a post on the lawn in front of the water and I took as many shots as I could. I had almost perfect aim each time but I had trouble with hitting the target when I held more than four shuriken in my hands. Itachi gave me pointers but I still had a bit of trouble.

"I'm gonna head back home. I think you should stay here and practice more. If you get better at this, I promise to take you to see my intensive training one day."

"Wow, Nii-san? You mean it?" I asked.

He nodded and then turned and walked away. I stood in front of the target with two shuriken in each hand determined to make them all hit. When I threw them, three hit, but one flew out to the edge of the pier. I ran over and bent to pick it up but as I ran, I slipped and fell over the edge. Suddenly, I was surrounded by water. I kicked my feet and hands up but it was no use… I didn't know how to swim yet. Mom was going to teach me soon… I didn't know when exactly but soon and now…now it was too late! I struggled and in my panic I gulped in water. My lungs pounded fighting to push the mistake back out but from the shock of falling in, I had no air to sustain myself. It was a losing battle but I was tough. I struggled for at least another full thirty seconds before I began to see black spots and my arms and legs gave up under the pressure and I sank and sank…

"Hey!" said a voice.

I coughed and spat out water. I breathed in a beautiful breath of fresh, clean air.

"Good, just cough it out…"

I wheezed and threw up more water.

"It's okay."

My eyes burned and tears spilled over. I was almost certain I was going to die. If anyone was going to save me, it would be Nii-san…but that wasn't Nii-san voice. And that hair…that unruly, blonde hair wasn't his either. I looked into a pair of crystal clear blue eyes, the first blue eyes I had ever seen, and the recognition hit me like a truck. I wiped my tears away and stared at him.

"It's you!"

"You scared me…for a moment, I thought you were a goner!" he said.

"You…you saved me." I said.

He smiled, now it was the first time I'd seen him smile, and put his hands behind his head.

"Thank you." I said in shock.

"No problem." He said.

It took me a second to realize he was mocking my response to him when he thanked me for the candy.

"So, you can swim?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I almost drown once too… I had to teach myself or I would die." He said.

"No one saved you?"

He shook his head. There was something mysterious about that kid, something like a secret. He shrugged.

"Anyway, when I pulled you out, you weren't even moving… I thought it was over."

"How did you get me to spit up the water?" I asked.

Suddenly, he blushed.

"Well…well…near the other side of town, kids fall into water often and I see adults do it all the time so I tried it and…it worked."

I was confused.

"It? What do you mean?"

He blushed even harder.

"Nothing really…" he said. "Anyway, you're going to be a ninja, right?"

I nodded.

"Why can't you swim, then?"

"My mom just hasn't had enough time to teach me."

"Well seeing you throw those shuriken earlier…it really surprised me when you didn't come up out of the water. That's why it took me so long to jump in. I almost thought you knew I was watching and was just trying to make fun of me."

He stood up and held out a hand, I grabbed it and stood next to him. Now that he had saved me, I felt embarrassed about my preconceived notions about him. He wasn't a thief, or even a nuisance, he was just a kid…just like me.

"So, you're gonna be a ninja too, right?"

He looked at the ground.

"I don't really know any ninja stuff." He confessed.

I smiled and suddenly, I had a great idea.

"I know a whole lot of ninja stuff!" I told him. "How about if you teach me to swim, I'll teach you all the ninja stuff I learn from my brother?"

He grinned wider than I'd seen anyone grin in my life.

"Wow, really?" he said.

It reminded me of the way I had responded to Nii-san when he said he'd take me to practice at the take. Deep inside I felt a bit guilty, I hadn't offered because I actually wanted to teach him ninjutsu or learn how to swim, I offered because I didn't have any friends in the Uchiha district and I was beginning to feel lonely. In fact, he was the first boy my age I'd ever had a full conversation with and at that moment, I decided I wanted him to be my friend.

"Sure." I said. "But I have to get home now, it's almost dinner time."

"Hey, wait." He said.

I turned around.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Sasuke." I replied. "Uchiha Sasuke."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto." He told me smiling all the way.

I picked up my shuriken and waved at him.

"Well, come back here tomorrow, then we can start! Okay, Naruto?"

He smiled and nodded vigorously. For couple of days, we practiced. He wasn't kidding when he said he didn't know any ninja stuff. He was truly awful. He threw like he'd never picked up a shuriken in his life, fought like one of the villager kids and had never even heard the word "chakra" before. When he first told me he didn't know any ninja stuff, I thought he meant he was a just a poor shot or bad at doing ninjutsu…but he honestly had never done any of that stuff before. After a long day of ninja practice, we walked back over to where Itachi planted the target and sat down in the grass. I finally learned how to throw multiple shuriken with both hands. Practicing with someone my age and height was helping my skills a lot, even if it wasn't helping his.

"So, why can't you jump really high?" I asked as he lay on his back and looked up at the setting sun.

"I don't know how you do that." He said.

"I already told you, it's easy… You just summon all the chakra to your feet and then push it down when you jump up. It's the first thing every ninja learns how to do, that's how you know you're a ninja."

"I already told _you _this is the first time I'm learning this." He muttered.

"How come? Why didn't your parents teach it to you?" I asked exasperatedly.

He rolled over and faced away from me. I lay on my back next to him and sighed.

"Sasuke…" he said.

"What?"

"How do you think you'd feel if one day you woke up and your mom and dad and brother were all gone?"

I became upset.

"Don't say something like that!"

He scowled again.

"But how do you think you'd feel?"

I sighed and put real thought into it.

"Bad, I guess…" I replied.

"Sasuke…I-I feel like that…everyday." He said.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't have a family." He told me.

My eyes widened.

"That's impossible." I said. "You _have_ to have a family."

He shook his head.

"I was just…born without one." He said.

"There has to be a mistake!" I said. "Maybe…maybe your family is in another village?"

"No, that's not it. I already know because all of the clothes I have…they all have the Konoha symbols on them." He told me.

He was right. His shirts all bore, right in the center, the red swirl that all the jounin wore on their left arms just like the Uchiha symbol I wore in the center of all of my shirts. But it was so strange, how could someone be born without a family?

"I'm sorry, Naruto." I said.

No wonder he stole and no wonder it seemed like he never had to get home at a certain time. I wanted to understand the unbearable loneliness he was probably feeling in his heart but I couldn't. I just couldn't get it. The only thing I could do was reach out…and grab his hand. He pulled away from me and didn't turn to face me.

"Sometimes I wonder…" he went on. "Why am I alive anyway?

Yes, now I was certain. I would never understand him. I never, ever wondered about my existence. I knew that my mom loved me and my dad sometimes smiled at me and my brother took me out to train, and that was all that mattered. That was my world…not this loneliness, not this pain. I was wrong, he wasn't a normal child at all… But then something occurred to me, the thing that drove me the most to train and work hard was Itachi's brilliance looming over me. I wanted to become a great ninja police officer like my dad and surpass Itachi because they were my family but also because they were like obstacles to me.

"I know why." I said.

At that, he turned over and looked at me.

"You're alive so that…you can become a great ninja, a strong ninja, so that everyone in the village won't throw things at you anymore and they'll see that you're a nice guy…just like I did."

Tears spilled down his cheeks and he wiped them away probably hoping I didn't see.

"But what's the point of getting strong anyway?" he asked.

"Because if you get stronger than everyone, then they have to see that you're important and they can't ignore you anymore and if they can't ignore you…then you know they care about you." I said thinking of Itachi.

He stared at me with wide eyes as I said this.

"Well, what happens after I get stronger than everyone?"

I smiled.

"Well, I'm gonna be the head of the Uchiha Police force when I get stronger than my brother, Itachi, but for you…that's obvious!"

His eyes widened more…lingering on my every word.

"You can be the new Hokage!" I told him.

I pointed ahead of us and sure enough, over the trees and opposite the setting sun lay the mountain with the Hokage's faces carved into them.

"And when your face is up there and everyone has to see it and remember that you're the strongest every day…they'll have to accept that…you're one of us." I said.

He started tearing up again.

"They'll have to realize that…you're family."

He seemed to be whispering the word "Hokage" under his breath, letting it roll off of his tongue.

"Yeah, I like that." He said clenching his fists with anticipation. "I _love_ that idea! I'm gonna become the Hokage! I'm gonna become even better than the Fourth Hokage!"

He jumped up into the air when he said this and toppled over and landed on his face. I laughed at him.

"That's right!" I said. "But…first, you have to learn how to be a ninja."

"Oh, right!" said Naruto sheepishly.

The next couple of days were hard work. Itachi taught me a couple of moves during the day and I practiced those, swimming and teaching Naruto the basics in the afternoons. By bedtime, I was beat every night. Instead of just barking orders at Naruto, I actually showed him how I conjure up chakra and use it to push myself up. He watched a couple of times and tried and I could see that the more he tried the high he got with each jump. One day, a long time after we started something miraculous happened. I pushed all the chakra I could muster into my feet and got up higher than I ever had that day to show him exactly how high I could truly go. I jumped up high enough to grab the limb of a tree above me. I pulled myself up and sat up there making faces at Naruto who sat about thirty feet below.

"Stop it!" he said.

"Come up here and make me, usuratonkachi!" I taunted.

"Sasuke!" he yelled hotly.

I could see him ball his fists and scowl. I leaned against the base of the tree and crossed my arms certain he wouldn't be getting up there. I pulled the same trick everyday for the past week and he never got even close enough to catch me. On the ground, Naruto bent his head and concentrated. I could tell he was getting the hang of handling chakra because it didn't take him too long to find however much he was looking for and then he bent his knees, waited a second and pushed up. My heart almost burst out of my chest when the limb I was sitting on shook and Naruto put one leg over and pulled himself up next to me.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed. "How'd you do that?"

He shrugged.

"I get it now." He said. "I've learned it. Now can we get to the fighting and stuff?"

I was astonished. How could he have learned it so fast? Even though I had known how to jump since I was a toddler, I hadn't been able to get to the height I was at then until years of practice. How could a boy who had never even learned one ninja technique know how to do it already? Suddenly, he shoved me.

"That's for calling me a usuratonkachi, Baka-suke!" he said.

I smiled and pushed him back. Yeah, I called him an idiot but Dad calls the ninja who are working hard to be on the police force that word all the time. He says it gets them to work harder…and clearly, it works.

"I'm sorry, Naruto." I said. "Great Job."

He grinned.

"Okay, now's the getting down part…you have to push your chakra down again like you did to get up here or else when you land on the ground it'll hurt _bad_."

I jumped down, exemplifying it and he jumped down after me without an issue. I ran over to the edge of the pier and he chased right after me. We pulled off our shirts and shoes and leapt into the water. Naruto was a pretty great swimmer. He told me he swims all the time to catch fish to put over the fire at home. I learned all of the strokes he taught me in less than a day and by the next day I could float and tread water too. Now it was almost a two weeks since we had begun helping each other and I was a pro at swimming. We raced each other from one side of the lake to the other and I passed him with much ease. When we surfaced, he looked surprised.

"Wow, Sasuke, you must really be practicing."

"Not really." I told him.

"What?" he asked. "You mean, you don't practice at home?"

I shook my head. We swam a couple more laps and then went back to the shore. We collapsed at the edge of the lake and put our arms behind out heads and let the sun dry our bare chests and soaked white shorts.

"Hey, Sasuke?"

"Yeah?"

"You think…maybe…I could be your new brother and live with you?"

I turned and looked at him.

"No… Probably not." I said truthfully.

He looked back up at the setting sun and the pinkish sky.

"I didn't think so." He mumbled.

"It's not you." He said. "I think only Uchihas can live in my District."

He shrugged.

"Yeah, I know. I was just making sure."

"How do you know?" I asked him.

"I know where you live. Sometimes I walk over there at night, but I'm usually kicked out. It's pretty obvious I'm not an Uchiha."

I propped myself up on my arm and looked down at him.

"You follow me home?" I asked, my face draining of color. "No wonder! My brother must've seen you!"

My mind flashed to the conversation I had with my family the night before. My mother served dinner to my father, Nii-san and I and I was so worried about Naruto, I could hardly eat. My mother picked up on this first.

"What's wrong, Sasuke-kun?" she asked. "Eat your dinner."

I put a spoonful in my mouth but when she turned to do the dishes, I kept picking at it. Now, my Dad noticed.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

I was hoping he would notice.

"Dad…" I began. "Is it possible for someone to not have a Mom or Dad?"

He put his fork down and mulled the question over in his head for a while. My mother froze at the sink, Nii-san, however, kept eating as though I hadn't spoken.

"Yes, it's possible that a person could've had parents once before but for one reason or another, they died."

Naruto's parents died? My brain screamed.

"Oh." I said.

"Why are you asking this, Sasuke?"

I didn't know how to reply, if I did, my Dad would know that I'd been breaking the rules by going past the District limits to the lake everyday to practice with Naruto while telling everyone I was practicing in the forest, in the District limits.

"Sasuke met Uzumaki Naruto." Nii-san said suddenly.

My eyes popped from the spot on the table to his eyes. I mentally pleaded him not to say more but he went on.

"He's been training with him, teaching him ninjustsu every afternoon at the lake. I've seen them."

"You went to the lake without permission?" asked my father.

For the first time in my life, I felt betrayed by my brother.

"Yes sir." I said.

My mother turned to face us.

"Uzumaki Naruto, huh? That kid lived? Wow… he must be your age now, isn't he?" she said seemingly remembering something from a long time ago.

"You know Naruto?" I asked her.

"No." she said suddenly very rigid. "In any case, you shouldn't be hanging around him."

"That's right, especially not against orders." Said my father. "That boy isn't safe, he isn't normal. You don't need to go and mix yourself in with someone like that. He's far beneath you."

I was shocked.

"But why? Why do people say that about him?" I asked.

Everyone was silent.

"He's nice! I almost drown in the lake and he saved my life, Dad!" I said.

My mother turned away with a red face, probably feeling guilty over never going through with teaching me how to swim. My father closed his eyes and crossed is arms, listening. Itachi was the only one who met my eyes. I locked onto them.

"If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead now…" I said. "He's not as bad as everyone says he is."

"Look, that's beside the point. You left the Uchiha district against orders, that's punishable by law, Sasuke."

I looked down.

"And I thought you said you wanted to be an officer…" he muttered.

I looked up at him, my face drained of all color. I wanted to cry, scream, and rage all at the same time. I held all of that back and focused on the question I cared about the most.

"Why does everyone hate him?" I whispered.

It was silent for so long I thought no one would answer and then my father spoke:

"It's not him." He said. "I know he's not a bad child. But if he wants someone to blame for his misery, he should blame the incompetence of Konoha."

My brother's eyes flashed to my father.

"It's not his fault this village is always leaving loose ends around. That's going to be their downfall…"

My brother stood up and dumped his plate off at the sink, then he walked in the direction of his room. I pushed my plate away from myself.

"I'm not hungry." I said.

"Hey, Sasuke." Said my father.

I turned back to him.

"I give you permission to go back one last time tomorrow. Just tell that kid you can't see him anymore. Don't leave things hanging."

I smiled.

"Sure, Dad. Thanks." I told him.

While I slept, I could hear my father's voice faintly in my parents room.

"_You know, I really hope that demon does break out of that kid and destroys the whole village again." He said. "It would serve this whole stupid village right. Leaving us to rot…leaving that kid to rot…it's all gonna come back and bite those stupid Hokage's in the ass, you just wait."_

I was shocked to hear my father speaking so fiercely but when I woke up the next morning, it felt more like a dream than anything else…

"Sasuke?"

"Huh?"

"I said no one saw me."

"Oh…no, I think my brother did. He told my parents I've been leaving the Uchiha District and now… I've been putting off telling you this all day but…the truth is I can't come back here anymore."

The look of despair that crossed Naruto's face pained me to the core, even at that young age.

"But you're doing such a great job…you don't even need me anymore!" I reassured him.

The dim sunlight glinted off of our shiny chests. A breeze rolled through and the grass tickled our bodies.

"If you keep practicing and you get into the academy, I'll see you there!" I told him.

He didn't look any happier. Probably because he sucked at ninja stuff and getting into the academy seemed like a long shot to him. I became serious, more serious than I naturally was.

"Naruto…"

He looked up at me.

"No matter what happens…when I finally become a full-blown ninja, I'll look for you and I'll never give up or stop caring about you. And one day, when I find you, we'll come back here and play, okay? So stop sulking!"

"Okay, okay! I'm definitely going to make it to the Academy, or else how could I be the Hokage?"

He started to smile and then I smiled and he laughed and I laughed. We lay back down in the grass, wiggling our toes and lifting our chins to the darkening sky.

"Sasuke, will we be friends forever?"

"Of course we will." I said. "One day we'll both be top ninja's and we'll hang out all the time."

Naruto smiled, satisfied. I felt pretty content too. Even though it seemed like the worse thing ever had happened, there still was a good chance we'd see each other again.

"You know what, Sasuke?"

"What?"

"When I become Hokage, the first thing I'm gonna do is make it so that there's no Uchiha District, so it doesn't matter what your clan is and you can play with me all the time!"

I looked over at him and smiled.

"That would be the best thing ever."

"And…do you promise?" he whispered.

I watched the stars beginning the peek their way through the night sky.

"Promise what?" I asked turning to look at him.

He stared me in the face with a worried expression. We locked eyes.

"Promise that you'll always think of me?"

I laughed and grabbed his hand.

"I promise, Naruto. You're my best friend! But you have to keep your promise too."

"What promise?" he asked with a furrowed brow.

"You have to become the Hokage." I said.

He grinned.

"Leave it to me!" he said.

Naruto's Part

Sasuke always wanted to know why I hung around the district borders even before I met him. It was because something about the idea of a clan which was segregated from the rest of the village bugged me. It was like they were hiding a secret, I wanted to know what was inside. I was drawn to the idea that maybe, just maybe, there were some people who were just as lonely and isolated as I was… It was like a physical manifestation of how I constantly felt inside.

Because of this, I probably saw Sasuke a lot but I don't remember it. Before he protected me from the mob of villagers, he probably just looked like another kid to me. But after that, there was scarcely a moment where I didn't think of his face. He meant so much to me even at age seven, just the thought of losing him hurt. He was the first person who ever took a moment to realize that I wasn't as bad as everyone thought. I was just hurting and he realized that and saved me, saved me from myself. That first day, the day he saved me, I began watching him.

I'd sneak into the Uchiha territory and peek into his windows and hide outside of his house. I watched the perfect family: A mother, father, big brother and little boy. Everyone had their part. Everyone played it well and to me, they all seemed happy and I was immensely jealous. Then that day, after I slept under the crawlspace of Sasuke's house and saw him and Itachi leaving, I followed. I saw Itachi leave Sasuke at the lake and I saw him practicing with fury. Practicing like his life depended on it. Even though I knew I wasn't an ordinary villager, I didn't identify myself with ninja either. I didn't know what I was so watching him throw shuriken had no effect on me. I didn't care. But I did want to know why he did it so seriously, what was it about being a ninja that made him so…goal-oriented.

I watched for a long time and then I saw him run to the edge of the pier and slip and fall inside the water. The ripples from his fall had dispersed almost to the shore before I got an inkling that something may be wrong. As soon as I reassured myself that he wasn't pulling a trick, I ran as fast as I could screaming for him to wait, then I jumped inside and pulled him back onto the pier. I gave him the kiss of life and patted his back as he coughed up water, not the normal beginning of a friendship but at least, now we were even. He saved me and I saved him. Then suddenly, we became friends.

We saw each other every day under the vise of "teaching" each other and we told jokes and watched the sunset and counted the stars and played tag and competed to see who could do the most back flips or hand-walks or push-ups or swimming laps. We did everything together after that. I finally felt like I had a place where I belonged, on the pier by the water, everything was different. Deep down inside, I felt that…no, I was certain that Sasuke actually liked me. If he just felt pity for me because I didn't have a family or any friends, he would've taught me a little stuff and then never have come back. But every afternoon I waited, and every afternoon, without fail, he came. And then at night, when he went home and I secretly followed, I watched him ask his brother or father questions that had to do with me like:

"How does someone get blonde hair?"

"How do you know if you're a ninja or just a villager?"

"Can you be a ninja even if your parents weren't ninja?"

"How do you teach someone about chakra if they've never seen ninjustu before?"

He was thinking about me! It was official. We were a unit, an item, a solid entity. I was Naruto and he was Sasuke, yes that was true but the names couldn't stand alone. Not on the pier next to the lake. Not climbing the tall trees and jumping next to the water. Not there… We belonged there together, not apart. We belonged together. We were happy, safe, care-free. There's nothing better than that…there's nothing better than the sound of two seven year olds laughing early into the morning and late into the night…nothing. But one day he smashed my hopes and dreams to the dirt, he came and told me he wasn't allowed to see me anymore. I was so angry, so hurt, so lonely… I wished for the worse. I wished in quote:

"I wish Sasuke didn't have a family…or even a clan. I wish everyone was gone so that we would both be alone and we could finally play together forever and he wouldn't have to go home for dinner and I wouldn't have to wait alone all night for him to get back. I just wish he could finally understand how lonely I feel."

And then it happened, about a year after he joined the academy, a couple of months before we were finally put into the same class, his brother murdered his entire clan including his parents and the lone survivor was him…

On more than one occasion I saw people whispering about him, talking like he was some kind of plague…like they talked about me. I knew then, that we were on the same plane. Now, finally, he would understand, I thought… I didn't go searching for him or anything. I was confident that he'd come to me. I waited for him, milling around, wasting time with Shikamaru and Choji or Kiba. You know, the slacker boys… And anyone else who didn't think I was complete trash…but at the end of the day, their parents always came for them and I was left sitting on the swing sets staring at the ground wondering, again, why I was alive. But he didn't come for me.

He clearly didn't have anything tying him down. There WAS no Uchiha clan anymore therefore there was no Uchiha District. It was all covered in blood anyway, I went through there once…completely disgusting, blood and guts everywhere. It was an awful sight for a kid to see. Sasuke wasn't there anymore though. Because he was now an orphan, like I was, he was given free housing in a building almost all the way across the village from the apartment I lived in. He could've come at any time he wanted to… why didn't he come? I was a child. I was lonely. I was quick to feel rejected and angry…so I just chalked it up to the fact that it wasn't real. He didn't truly think of me as a friend. He had already forgotten about me and it was all a lie.

But I was a child so I didn't realize that just because he was now completely and utterly alone didn't mean, he'd suddenly come running for me. Loosing bonds you already had isn't the same thing as never having a bond to begin with. So, he didn't suddenly remember our friendship, in fact, it was now buried under tons and tons of anger and pain and hatred…so much hatred for the brother I recall him showing nothing but gratitude for when we were kids. And me? He completely denounced me. It was as if nothing that we did together ever happened.

Maybe if my wish didn't come true, we would've had the chance to be true friends but it did come true…and now he's as lonely as me but it means nothing. He's not the Sasuke I made friends with when I was seven. Just a year later, when we were eight and we were called to spar against each other, he came up to me with these cold, critical emotionless eyes…like he was looking right through me. Even though we often made the "Union sign" of sparing when we were seven beside the lake, that day, he refused to sign with me…and I refused to see the same Sasuke I'd seen a year before.

Since that day, I've known deep in my heart that…he'd pushed all of his memories of that time deep down inside where it could never be retrieved. And…I hated him for it. But I couldn't do anything about it. He haunted my dreams day and night. He was the one I saw when I closed my eyes to sleep and the one I saw when I woke up and I couldn't do anything about it. Just like how he was obsessed with getting revenge on Itachi, I was obsessed with surpassing him. He didn't realize it but…he sealed his fate that day when he promised to teach me ninjustsu because the more I learned it the more I loved it and the more I loved it the more resolved I became to get strong enough to be the Hokage. But there was a road block I had to get over before I became the Hokage…and that was him.

When he began teaching me ninjustsu, he sealed his fate as my ultimate rival. I would do anything to aspire greater than him. Even though he was acknowledging me as a friend, I wanted more… I wanted him to turn away from Itachi and acknowledge me as a rival too. But just like how he was my road block, Itachi was his and there was no way he'd ever turn away from that after Itachi destroyed their clan… But I was determined, I wanted his acknowledgment, needed it. Just like when I finally was able to jump as high as he could…

"Ugh, why do I even have to learn this, Sasuke? It's stupid!" I said exasperatedly.

"Because, ninja's have to know how to jump really high really quickly. Like, what's the point of doing a substitution jutsu or throwing a smoke bomb down if you're still standing there when the diversion is gone? You gotta be quick."

I almost drooled, everything he said went completely over my head. It was aggravating him. I could tell but…I just couldn't understand. It seemed impossible. I hadn't even heard about a substitution jutsu before he said it.

"Gosh, the point is you have to build your chakra."

"Chakra, chakra! You say that all the time!"

"It's your energy! The energy you build to fight with!"

"So you're trying to tell me there's some invisible energy inside me and I have to use that to make me jump high?"

He nodded. I threw my hands up.

"It makes no sense!"

We both argued for a while and then finally he said:

"You know what? This is getting us nowhere! I'll just show you!"

Then I saw the weirdest thing I'd ever seen in my life…other than the day he saved me. I saw him concentrate really hard and summon…something. Whatever he was summoning, I could kind of feel it…like in my bones…whatever he was bringing up, I could feel that he had it. When he pushed it to his feet, whatever it was, he lifted up off the ground and got so high up he was able to catch the limb of a tree almost twenty feet over our heads!

"Amazing…" I said awestruck.

"Your turn!" he said.

Even though I'd just seen him do it, I wasn't sure if I could pull it off but when I tried to summon chakra, I could feel it inching out. I could feel something…something that was a part of me slipping in and out of my bones. It was difficult to grasp though…it was almost like trying to catch a strip of silk with slow reacting fingers. It was escaping quickly. I stood there for a long time trying to grasp this thing and finally I got impatient and caught what little bit I could and jumped up.

I got higher than an average jump but still only about seven feet off of the ground. Sasuke, from up on the tree, sighed and muttered something. I felt embarrassed…so I pushed myself. For the next two weeks, after we practiced and he went home, I'd stay there by the tree and practice summoning chakra and jumping. I practiced so much every night when I went to bed my legs were sore and my feet were cramped. I practiced doing sit-ups and push-ups and hand stands and other exercises to make my body more agile like Sasuke told me he and his brother do together.

I needed to become strong! I needed to become the Hokage! I needed to beat Sasuke! These were the things my brain functioned on. Nothing else mattered to me.

So I practiced hard, harder than I'd ever practiced for anything and finally one night exactly two weeks later. I became good at sensing when I had chakra and where I could push it to. I still wasn't very good at handling it when I finally grasped it, like knowing how much I was pushing and being able to distribute it and preserve it but at least I could feel it. So that night, I summoned it, pushed it down, and jumped and my fingertips grazed the thirty-foot tall branch Sasuke had been sitting on all week.

The next day he called me names and taunted me as he sat up there. I couldn't wait to show him my big surprise. And boy, was he surprised when I got up there and climbed up next to him. But…that day still isn't a happy memory for me…because it was the same day he told me he couldn't see me anymore…it was the same day I returned to the shadows of the village but this time used my newfound knowledge of jumping and escaping to wreak havoc on the village. I ran around and painted graffiti over shops and even drew my face next to the Hokage's on the mountains…but no one could catch me anymore. I finally had the skills of a ninja.

But…every now and then, I'd walk past the old lake that we used to play at and I'd see Sasuke sitting there on the pier looking out at the water. The first time I saw him, my heart quickened in anticipation and I wondered if he was waiting for me but…I pushed the idea out of my head. No way. If I go down there, he'll just talk crap to me. I convinced myself of that.

I replaced my friendship with rivalry and people began to recognize us as two people who would never get along. We argued in school, called each other names and made faces at each other and fought seemingly to the death anytime we had to spar in the Academy. But it didn't hide the truth that almost every day, Sasuke sat at the place where I saved his life, and also almost every day, I made sure to walk by, secretly keeping tabs on him, secretly comforted that someone was just as alone as I was.

When we were twelve, it seemed like everything may just work out. I grew more bonds with Iruka and Kakashi and Sakura and all the other rookie ninja in the village. And Sasuke and I were on a team together. In our first mission we had to fight two people who were way beyond our league, Haku, a boy with some deadly needles, aimed at me, going for the kill and Sasuke, with his newly awakened Sharingan jumped in the way and accepted death rather than to see me get killed. I became enraged, I unlocked the ability to use the nine-tails chakra at that point and I fought like I'd never fought before in my life certain that Sasuke had been killed.

But I was lucky, he was alive. And suddenly, it was just like when we were kids. It was like being on a team together reminded us of those old times. Yeah, we still put up a front and made fun of each other and pretended to hate each other but there was something deeper than that between us…and we were both fully aware of it. We never talked about it but some nights camping out on missions it felt like we were seven years old again watching the stars. Those nights as we lay side by side when Kakashi was on patrol and Sakura-chan was asleep, I whispered:

"Hey, Sasuke?"

And he would mutter "What do you want, usuratonkachi?"

And I say in a voice barely audible: "Do you still promise?"

And he would wait, the owls would make their sounds, the crickets would chirp and the moonlight would shine and we'd both wait for his response and then…quietly, almost as if I'd fallen asleep waiting and it was just a dream he'd reply:

"Always."

I knew that being on Team 7 would bring my first best friend back. I knew that it would make up for all the lost time and that maybe, one day when I felt everything had been patched up I'd admit that I wished for his life to take this route because I was a selfish idiot and hopefully he'd forgive me…but it didn't happen. He became anxious. He wanted revenge more than he wanted me. He wanted revenge so badly that…he resolved to kill me for the sake of it. That's when I knew that the seven year old Sasuke that promised to teach me "how to be a ninja" was gone, lost inside this new thirteen year old demon…and that if I didn't act quickly, he'd never come back.

So, he chased after his prize: Itachi, the one he would get revenge on and I chased after him. The thing he failed to realize all this time is that he made me… Without him, there would be no little blonde haired boy in Konoha who always ran around screaming about becoming the Hokage. He made me what I am. He inspired my hopes, my dreams, my ambitions. It was like he was my mother, father and brother all rolled up into one. Now you see, don't you?

He was everything to me. He made me a ninja. He taught me the basics and showed me the ropes. And all I could do in the end was teach him to swim…and now, it seems, he didn't learn it very well at all because he's drowning and I'm the one struggling to keep him afloat.

Well, no matter. I'm not going to give up on Sasuke because giving up on him is like giving up on myself…and I'd never do that, no one who wants to become the Hokage could ever give up on themselves. I'll keep fighting because what Sasuke didn't realize is that, without him our roles probably would've been reversed. If I never met him, I'd never get the ambition to become a Hokage and surpass him. It was that ambition that drove me to keep trying and never give up and pursue what seemed to be impossible. It was because he suggested it to me with so much faith in me that it took root inside my mind and never stop growing. Without him, I most likely would've rotted somewhere and resurfaced as an evil person bent on murdering people to feel something like Gaara did, I probably would've ran away from the village on a killing spree. But I didn't, because I knew, deep down inside…Sasuke believed I could do it. He believed in me.

"Sasuke, you were supposed to be here. You were supposed to be right here next to me and now that you're not…I have to fulfill my part of the promise. I know that no matter what you say, you still care about me and you're still thinking about me. I know it. So, I can't just let you drown. I didn't let it happen before and I won't let it happen now… Why you ask? Well, it's for the same reason you promised me on, it's because you're my best friend, Sasuke. Forever."

Sakura's Part

I'm not supposed to know anything. I'm just supposed to be the girl on the team that sits around and shuts up. Seen but not heard. Yeah, initially I was completely opposed to that. I figured, the more I talked, the more I could get Sasuke to notice me. I absolutely loved Sasuke… He was strong, mysterious, brave, seemingly passionate. You know, if you like the broader type, he's perfect. I still remember the first time I heard his name…

I had just finished playing in the flower field with Ino. I had a rose in my hair and skipped as I walked. I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, a dense crowd with yelling people. I was drawn to it. I was too short to see anything so I climbed on top of a nearby table, stood on my tippy toes and peered down into the center of the crowd…and there he stood. He had some juice splattered all over the front of his shirt… Some girl threw it at him. But as he stood there in front of a blonde haired boy who was sitting slack jawed on the ground, something occurred to me. He couldn't have been the one everyone was yelling at…because they were all silent as they looked at his face.

"Move out of the way." Someone said.

Others mumbled agreement and then Sasuke threatened that if they threw anything else at him or the boy behind him, he'd get his Dad to sick 'em. Suddenly, the emotions of the crowd changed. They all murmured, almost excited…

"Uchiha?"

"What, he's an Uchiha?"

"Yeah, look at the sign on his back. He's definitely one."

"What is he even doing outside of his district?"

"Let's go…"

I expected everyone to continue yelling at them and scolding them for whatever they did wrong but they didn't…with their newfound knowledge they immediately dispersed. I guess I was drawn to power. How could a little seven year old boy have so much power? What was an Uchiha? Why did it mean so much? There was an older ninja girl standing next to the table I was standing on. I asked her those questions.

"The Uchihas run the Konoha Military Police force, that's all." She said.

"So they were afraid they'd go to jail?" I asked.

She almost laughed.

"No, _they_ were afraid that he'd get too angry and kill them all."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "He's only a kid."

"That doesn't mean anything. The Uchihas are all really, really strong. Doesn't matter what the age is."

When I turned back to look at the crowd, no one was there. Not one person, the ninja girl I had been talking to jumped away…and I was alone with this new found information. I wanted to know more about Sasuke but finally, I pushed far enough to discover that Uchihas were segregated from the rest of the village for some reason. When the people I asked told me about it they expressed fear.

"Those Uchihas are nothing to play with." Said the woman I was doing voluntary chores for. "They're strong, alright, real strong but that doesn't mean they're good people…not at all."

It was like along with the name Uchiha came fear and admiration. I didn't sense that aurora coming from the black haired boy at all. He seemed like he was just doing a favor for the blonde haired kid, not trying to start a fight. After a while, I let it go. Two years later, at age nine, I was placed into the same Academy class as Sasuke but by then, all of the nightmareish things had already happened in his life. He was cold, isolated and angry looking. But that didn't bother me, I was certain he did that to seem appealing to girls. But anyway, he wasn't originally in my class, he was introduced into my class halfway through the year for some reason.

"Hey, kids stop talking for a second…I have someone here I'd like you to meet."

We all turned and looked, I had been talking to Ino so I looked too.

"His name is Uchiha Sasuke…he's very happy to meet you."

From behind Iruka-Sensei came the same black haired little boy except he was a bit taller, just a bit, and he made eye contact with no one. He scanned the room quickly and his eyes landed on…a blonde haired boy. My mind didn't make the connection. After all, I didn't spend much time looking at the boy Sasuke was protecting the first time I met him, he seemed irrelevant. But Sasuke walked up the steps and turned to the left and sat right next to that boy.

I watched…they didn't speak to each other all class. Didn't even acknowledge each other. The blonde haired boy constantly glanced over at him but Sasuke seemed like it was chance that he was sitting there. The blonde haired kid was annoying though, by that time, I knew his name. Naruto.

He was always causing Iruka Sensei trouble and I heard that before he came to our class, he was kicked out of five other classes for insubordination. He was a troublemaker, a punkish kind of boy. Ino's mom told us to stay away from him…so we did. Most of us despised him actually, all he ever did was shout about how he was soon going to become the Hokage but he had almost no ninja skills, it was sad.

"Hey, that new boy is cute." Ino said looking around me to get a good view of him.

A girl sitting next to him agreed.

"Certainly better than all these lameos…" she said motioning to Shikamaru who was sleeping, Choji who was eating and Kiba who was picking his nose.

"Does anyone want to demonstrate how to do a substitution jutsu?"

Naruto's had shot-up. Everyone glared at him and snickered made annoyed comments. He didn't even wait for Iruka sensei to call on him. He dove from his chair to the stage and jumped up and down screaming that he could do it. Iruka sensei finally gave in and Naruto clasped his hands together seemingly trying to gather chakra. When he finally made the sign, all that appeared was a rotted, maggot infested log that rolled on the ground.

Everyone laughed at him. He soaked up the attention. Ino and I rolled our eyes. And that was the way almost every class was for the next three years…except… Now, I remember watching Sasuke and seeing that, every time Naruto did a stupid "demonstration" for the class, his eyes were stuck to him like glue.

I chalked it up to the fact that he despised him just like everyone else did. I didn't want to look any farther into it…but I suppose if I did, I'd have seen that his eyes weren't so cold and calculating when he watched Naruto, they were soft and open…almost like he was recalling a distant memory.

A year later, I formally met Naruto. I was volunteering to help clean the desks in the class but it was really just so I could watch Sasuke. Naruto and Sasuke got in trouble for refusing to do the Union sign…again. I blamed Naruto. I mean, who would want to hold hands with him? Most of the time he looked like he didn't know the meaning of a bath! Naruto and I both cleaned the desks and Sasuke scrubbed the board.

"I think it was nice of you to help us!" said Naruto.

I glanced at him.

"Sure whatever."

The windows were open, a breeze rolled in and tickled my skin, I wrapped my arms around myself feeling cold. I glanced over again and noticed Naruto watching me.

"What?" I said,

"You have cherry blossoms in your hair." He said pointing.

The wind probably swept them in, he made a motion to pull them out but I moved away.

"Don't touch me!" I said.

He blushed. "Sorry."

Gross, this kid looked absolutely disgusting, I kid you not. His fingernails were untrimmed and dirty. His hair was all over the place and looked like it had never even SEEN a comb. His shirt was crumpled and stained, his pants were tattered. Why would I want to mix myself in with trash like that?

"Hey, what's your name?" he asked.

I sighed, hoping that if I told him he'd go away.

"Haruno Sakura." I told him.

The wind blew again, my hair warped around my face.

"Sakura." He said again. "I'm Naruto."

"I know." I said.

He smiled.

"You're pretty." He told me.

I looked over at Sasuke, he had paused at cleaning the board, I could tell he was listening. Naruto was ruining everything! I was so upset that I didn't know what to do. So, I pushed him. He stepped back and the bucket beneath him toppled over. He tripped over the bucket and fell into a puddle of water, then he looked up at me, shocked. I smirked.

"Oops." I said shrugging.

I looked over at Sasuke to see if he'd smile or laugh at Naruto's folly but he was such a cool guy, he just stood there watching us. It was almost as if he had fallen in love with me for getting rid of that idiot Naruto! I tossed my hair over my shoulder and we locked eyes. He stared at me for a moment longer then he curtly turned around and left the room.

"Ah! That stupid Sasuke! We didn't finish yet!" exclaimed Naruto.

He stood up and ran after Sasuke as fast as he could screaming insults the entire way. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine…what was that now? Why did he glare at me so menacingly? I looked over to the chalkboard and noticed the chalk eraser he had been holding to erase the board was crushed. He was holding it in his hand as he watched me talk to Naruto… Was he so jealous of Naruto that he couldn't contain it? Maybe he loved me after all… But, I didn't recall that he wasn't looking at me and Naruto when he was clutching the eraser…just me…with that menacing expression.

A lot of time passed and the three of us were never alone together again but every day, Naruto harassed me with his stupid little crush on me and I blatantly pushed him away in front of Sasuke, and every day, like clockwork, Sasuke watched. I was almost sure he would ask me out…any time now.

But then we were all put on a team together, I was satisfied with Sasuke but…Naruto? Why did it seem like that blonde haired, mischievous, idiot would plague me for the rest of my life? What did I do to deserve that?

But then a lot of things happened, it was Naruto not Sasuke who saved my life from Gaara and again, during the Chunin exams, it was Naruto who saved us. I was confused. I was beginning to like Naruto…beginning to see that he wasn't as bad as everyone said he was but by that time it was far too late for me to develop any affection for him because Sasuke broke free and tried to escape the village…and I confessed my love for him thinking he would stay…and he rejected it.

And it made me obsessed with trying to correct that rejection, trying to reel him back in to be there for me…but I knew I wasn't strong enough so I used Naruto to go do it… I sent him to go and correct my misdeeds, fix my mistake, bring the one I love back. I used him. I knew he loved me and I took that to my advantage and when he came back all bruised and bandaged, I didn't see a kind, caring boy who needed my approval…I saw a failure.

"If I ever sent Sasuke to go retrieve Naruto, I know he'd bring Naruto back… I know he would."

Kakashi's Part

The first time I saw those two I didn't understand them at all. Obito and I were like that, we fought, we poked fun at each other, we disagreed…but that was all on account of my arrogance. At that time, I cared about nothing except the mission. I had no friends, no lovers, no family, if Obito and Rin had to die for the mission then so be it.

Naruto's father was a good man. He was my mentor and he taught me that friends are scared. Obito had to die before I saw the truth…felt the pain…realized that a life is more precious than getting a document from point A to point B.

But that wasn't the truth for Sasuke… Sasuke seemed cold and angry…but I could see that he was warm inside. He wanted…no, he needed love. That was it. He thirsted for Sakura's devotion and Naruto's tough love. He thrived off of their companionship. It was obvious in the way that he threw his life to the side in the face of danger and sacrificed himself to save them countless times. Had it been me, I wouldn't ever have thought of them…and that was usually what happened.

Minato saved Rin and pushed Obito out of the line of danger and I saved myself. It's clear that Sasuke could've been saving Sakura and Naruto because I wasn't there and three are better than one when dealing with powerful opponents but even when I was there, Sasuke would fight for those two. Like they became his family. I saw that and I was proud of him… But the more his revenge took root in his heart, the more he accepted leaving them behind to pursue his "purpose" which was to fight Itachi.

I saw a little me in him. I saw myself rushing off to become evil while leaving my friends behind and I vowed myself to stop it. I didn't take Sasuke seriously at all until I was late getting to the final valley fight and I felt the chakra pressure coming from the area, such enormous chakra for two thirteen year old boys…and I worried that Sasuke would kill Naruto. My mind flashed back to the way they aimed at each other on top of the hospital, based on the way their faces looked when Sakura rushed into the fray, I could tell that neither of them had planned on harming anyone…they just pushed each other two far. But this time, this time I could sense something dark coming from the area…and I worried that Sasuke had finally snapped and resolved to kill Naruto for the sake of the Mangekeyo Sharingan.

Yes, I knew about the secret of the Mangekeyo and I was certain Itachi passed it onto Sasuke before leaving…that was how I knew…Sasuke loved Naruto…but to achieve his life goal, he would have to suck it up and kill him…all for the sake of avenging his clan.

"But at what cost Sasuke? At what cost?" I asked him.

It was late into the night. Naruto and Sakura were sleeping. We set up camp in a valley on our way back from a simple "deliver this document" C-rank mission. It was after Naruto and Sasuke almost killed each other atop the hospital roof but before Sasuke decided to leave the village. I pulled him to the side for a pep talk…

"I know all about the secrets of the Sharingan… I have my own Sharingan and I just can't believe that you would throw away all these new friendships simply for revenge."

He scowled.

"Are you aware that at this rate, once you've traveled to the ends of earth and finally killed Itachi, you'll have no one to come home to?"

He clenched his fists.

"What's the point of achieving a goal if you have no one to cheer you on? What's the point of making all these sacrifices if, in the end, you'll be more alone than you were in the beginning?"

"I don't care about anything you're saying." He said.

"I don't believe that the end justifies the means, Sasuke, that's all I'm saying… You won't be any happier once you're done. I can guarantee that."

He didn't make eye contact with me. Instead, he turned around, walked all the way to the other side of the clearing and lay down on his sleeping bag. I sighed and climbed onto a high branch.

About two hours later, I heard some rustling and looked down to see Naruto waking up. He yawned, rubbed his eyes and stumbled away from Sakura and into the bushes near where Sasuke slept. With his back to them, he zipped down his pants and let loose. A couple of bushes to the left of him, Sasuke started tossing and turning. He was mumbling and clutching the sleeping bag.

"Don't kill me." He said. "Please…Nii-san, don't kill me."

I sighed feeling immense pity for Sasuke. Even in his sleep, revenge haunted him. Naruto heard him and quickly zipped up his pants. Sasuke tossed and turned more.

"No…" he said. "Not Mom and Dad, please…not Mom and Dad…"

Naruto was then standing next to Sasuke looking down at him. I couldn't interpret his facial expression. Suddenly, he knelt down, grabbed Sasuke by the shoulders and began to shake him.

"Sasuke, wake up!" he said.

But Sasuke was having a lot of trouble snapping out of his nightmare. Meeting Itachi recently and fighting him probably made those nightmares a lot more real. Naruto pulled him up into a sitting position but he was fighting Naruto like he was the enemy, still tangled in a world between reality and dreams.

"Stop it, Nii-san!" Sasuke yelled. "Stop!"

"Sasuke, it's me, Naruto!" Naruto shouted.

And that was all it took. Sasuke's eyes popped open and he sat straight up. He was breathing heavily; his entire body trembled and gripped his sleeping bag so hard that his knuckles were white. He stared into Naruto's face, almost incredulously, and they locked eyes for a couple of seconds. Then, suddenly, Naruto pulled Sasuke into his chest and…hugged him.

"Everything's going to be okay, Sasuke."

"Get off me." Sasuke said. "If you don't, I'll kill you… I swear, I'll-I'll"

"It's okay…everything's going to be okay." Said Naruto.

Though Sasuke kept making small threats at Naruto, he made no attempt to push him away. Instead, he pushed his face into Naruto's shirt and gripped the back of his jacket like he was afraid Naruto was going to leave him. After a few seconds, Sasuke's shoulders began to shake and he made sounds like…he was crying. I couldn't see Naruto's face from where I sat but I was surprised, so I suspected Naruto had to be shocked but when he spoke, it was in a calm voice.

"Don't cry, Sasuke…you're safe." He said.

Sasuke shook his head.

"I don't want to go back."

"You're not going anywhere." Naruto reassured him.

But it didn't seem like he was listening, he may have still been half asleep or maybe he was just that troubled but he kept saying "Don't let him take me back…" and "Please, don't let me go back." Naruto kept saying things like "I won't let anyone take you" and "I'll stop them, Sasuke" but it still didn't have much of an effect. It took a long time, with Naruto kneeling down and holding Sasuke to his chest like he was a child and Sasuke clinging to Naruto like a frightened cat, but finally, Sasuke's hands dropped from Naruto's jacket and his body went slack and he leaned into Naruto. His breathing became deep and slow. Naruto gently laid him back down inside his sleeping bag then he went over to his own sleeping bag, dragged it next to Sasuke's, got in and went to sleep. Sasuke didn't have any more troubled sleep for the rest of the night, though. They both slept like babies.

In the morning, when everyone woke up, it was the same. Naruto and Sasuke pretended nothing happened. Sasuke's tears which covered the front of Naruto's shirt had dried and the wrinkled spots where Sasuke had gripped Naruto's jacket silently begging him to stay were stretched back into place. There was no evidence. And, again, they ignored each other. But it was obvious to anyone who paid close attention that there was something between these two… Every few minutes, Sasuke would glance at Naruto and then, right when Sasuke looked away, Naruto would turn and look. And it happened like that back and forth for the rest of the walk home.

I'm not sure if the Sasuke we know now, the one that killed Itachi and Danzo and almost tried to kill the other Kage's still has that tenderness I saw that night. I'm not sure if _that_ tenderness was even honest but Naruto seems to be betting on it…and I trust Naruto in everything he does. So watch out, Sasuke, no matter what nightmare you plunge into next, we're right behind you. We won't let them take you.


End file.
